Timefoolery

The old clock that once tick-tocked at my grandmother's home struck ten when I was talking with my mother.

"Did you hear that?" I asked her.  "The Sengottai clock keeps working."

She heard it loud and clear.  

"So, right now there is only a 30-minute difference between your time and ours.  Here it is 10:30."

"For a couple more days," I replied.  "And then it will become a one-and-a-half hour difference."

The dreaded time change is upon us.

Every year, mid-fall, we put our clocks back by an hour, and then shift the clock ahead by an hour in early spring.

Why?  Why go through this rigmarole of resetting the clock twice a year? 

Because we are stupid!  As simple as that.

The reality is simply this: "Standard time is determined by the rotation of our Earth. And it also is optimally phased to correspond to biological clocks."

And, thanks to the planet's tilt, the farther one is from the equator, the more the days get shorter after the longest day in June, and slowly the days get longer after Christmas--in the northern hemisphere--and vice versa.  We can try whatever tricks we want, but the facts don't change.

If anybody believes that fooling with the clocks is somehow an energy efficiency approach, they surely are smoking something awesome for them to overlook the facts.

This stupid gimmick is becoming increasingly unpopular:

Scientists have been calling attention to the damaging effects of the time changes—which include a general reduction in mental and physical well-being, as well as a potential increased risk of serious complications, such as strokes and heart attacks, soon after the shifts. There is also evidence of increases in traffic fatalities and harmful medical errors shortly following when clocks are moved forward in the spring.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine just came out with a support on permanent standard time.  And so have many other scientific groups.

The god awful resetting of the clocks is not based on science and facts. Then why do we do this?

Just one word explains it all: Politics!

If only the bipartisan effort to kill daylight sayings time would succeed!